The invention relates to job interrupt, and more particularly, to job interrupt without undue machine recycle wait time.
Job interrupt is a well known feature to suspend a job in process in a machine in order to run a second job as a courtesy to another operator or to run a second job of higher immediate priority. To be able to resume the first job after the completion of the second job, the status of the first job must be preserved and the machine suitably reset to continue the first job after completion of the second job. In particular, if the first job requires use of an automatic document handler, the resetting the machine often requires the recycling of the documents in the automatic document handler before commencing the run of the second job. Resetting and recycling the machine to begin operation of the second job can be relatively time consuming and this "dead" time before beginning the second job diminishes the overall efficiency and productivity of the machine. This dead time is particularly onerous when an immediate job interrupt is requested for a second job requirement of only one or very few copy sheets.
It would be desirable to provide a relatively rapid interrupt to significantly lessen the machine recycle or dead time before initiation of the second job. It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a copy wait feature that eliminates time consuming machine resetting and status save before initiation of relatively low volume second jobs. Another object of the present invention is to provide a copy wait option with a relatively short transition time period to interrupt a job in process to commence a relatively simple second job requirement in addition to a job interrupt option with a relatively long transition time period to interrupt a job in process to commence a relatively complex second job requirement. Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.